December 20, 2015
Greetings from a delightfully pleasant Laie, Hawaii where we occasionally need umbrellas, but never snow shovels. We’ve been hearing about the snow in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming the past week and, I’ll be very honest, I haven’t missed it at all. We’re happy for the water that the western United States needs, though!
We got some delightful news last Friday from Kentucky. Grandson James has received his mission call to the Portland Oregon Mission and reports to the MTC in Provo on March 9th, almost exactly one year after Sister Smith and I reported (we arrived at the MTC on March 8, 2015). We’re so excited for him to go! He and his brother Steven will be in the same time zone and only a few hours apart in distance. They are and will be great missionaries and their parents will hardly know them when they get home all grown up and adults.
This has been a lively week here in Laie! The visitor count at the Center grew day by day as more and more vacationers arrived from the mainland. All of the luau’s are already sold out next week at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which means we’ll be very busy all of the coming week. The Center closes at 6pm on Christmas Eve, stays closed on Christmas Day, and opens again at 9am on December 26th. Based on our shift schedule, we’ll close the center on Christmas Eve and then open it again on the 26th. We’ll also be at the Center for some of the afternoon on Christmas Day so the sister missionaries can Skype their families. They like to be able to use the iPad at the Center so they can give their family a “guided tour” of the Center. So, on Christmas Day we’re available to Skype (or FaceTime) anyone interested!
Transfers happened last Wednesday and things are settling back down. Four greatly missed sisters have gone home … all made it home without incident to very happy parents and in time for Christmas. One new sister arrived from the MTC in Provo and she’s already doing great stuff. The missionaries coming out are so very well prepared and anxious to start doing missionary work. We’ve gone from 26 missionaries in thirteen companionships to 25 missionaries in eleven companionships, which also meant closing down (temporarily) one of the apartments. Our authorized staffing level is 26 missionaries and I expect we’ll be back at 26 on the next transfer at the end of January.
While there were no bicycle problems this past week, I did report to the Kahuku Police Department the stolen bicycle from the previous week. I found two different telephone numbers on the Internet for that police department. One was always busy. The other was never answered. So, on Tuesday I drove over (it’s only about 10 minutes away) and made my way through their security system to talk with a police officer. After filling out the report I asked him what number I should use in this case. “It isn’t an emergency, so I wouldn’t call 911,” I told him. “Why not?” he responded. It turns out that in Hawaii one always calls 911 to reach the police for whatever reason. Apparently the operator answers by asking if this call is an emergency or not. If not, the call is routed to the local police department for further processing. That was something new for me!
The police report was needed for insurance purposes and I’m sure we’ll not hear anything more about the bicycle. In the aftermath, however, the sisters are much better about locking up their bicycles. The Mission Office told me that they would be procuring and sending up two new bicycles, which will allow me to retire another of the very old bikes that requires a lot of maintenance.
We didn’t need to take tickets at the Polynesian Cultural Center this past week as the place we were assigned wasn’t used that evening. We actually miss going over there. We don’t have another assignment until January. They did have an activity that we missed, though … they brought in a snow-making machine and generated six tons of snow over at the Hukilau Marketplace for the kids (and kid-like adults) to play in until it all melted. The temperature got up to a high of 77° that afternoon, so the snow probably didn’t melt very fast. When we drove past the PCC the parking lot was packed. As I said earlier, I’m not missing snow….
We had the last of our Christmas Firesides this evening put on by the Tonga Sisters. This is a family of eight daughters and a trailer of one son. The daughters are very talented and put on a very well received program (Google “tonga sisters” and a number of YouTube videos will come up). Again we had a packed building with barely standing room. Their fireside was a great way to start the Christmas week.
Well, that being said, it’s time to close. We love you and hope that your Christmas is joyful and delightful! We also hope you’ll take some time to also consider the reason for the season … the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
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